BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Due to fierce competition and diving sales prices, over 100 small and medium-sized MP3 music player factories have closed down in China over the past few months, the Beijing Daily reported on Friday.

    Four years ago, it was very easy and cheap to set up MP3 player factories in China, with profit on each player exceeding 200 yuan (24.7 US dollars), the newspaper said.

    The sudden huge profits in this field led to the establishment of hundreds of MP3 player factories in southern China, which contributed 80 percent of China's MP3 player output.

    As the capacity of memory chips, a core instrument for MP3 player, continues to improve while prices drop, the competition in this area become more heated, resulting in the closedown of many small and medium-sized enterprises in the country.

    "In Shenzhen only, three brands of MP3 players die out silently per month on average," Jia Yaoyong, general manager of the north China branch of the Dazhong Electronic Appliance Company, was quoted as saying.

    Two years ago, there were at least 300 MP3 player brands in the domestic market, but now, the figure has declined to around 100, Jia said.

    The MP3 player market is being restructured at an unprecedented speed, he said.

    The quick closedown of these manufacturers has led to an after-sale problem, he said.

    According to China's relevant provisions, consumers that meet quality problems can directly ask manufacturers or merchandisers for compensation. For this reasons, retailers including Dazhong have started to clean out MP3 player brands that have the possibility of disappearance, the newspaper reported. Enditem